Radiocarbon constraints on the age of the world's highest-elevation Cave-Bear population, conturines Cave (Dolomites, Northern Italy)

Autor(en)
Christoph Spötl, Paula J. Reimer, Gernot Rabeder, Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Abstrakt

We report radiocarbon (C-14) dates on bone samples of Ursus ladinicus, a small cave bear species well adapted to a life in the mountains, whose remains were found in Conturines Cave. Located at 2775 m asl in the Dolomites of northern Italy, this cave is by far the highest known cave bear site worldwide. Eleven C-14 dates obtained by the Belfast and Oxford laboratories on samples showing good collagen preservation yielded consistent ages in excess of 46-50 ka BP. These results show that contrary to the previously held view these cave bear remains are older than Marine Isotope Stage 3, and likely date from a warm climate period with a high treeline, possibly the Last Interglacial.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Paläontologie, Department für Evolutionäre Anthropologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, University of Oxford, Queen's University Belfast
Journal
Radiocarbon
Band
60
Seiten
299-307
Anzahl der Seiten
9
ISSN
0033-8222
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2017.60
Publikationsdatum
06-2017
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105118 Paläontologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Allgemeine Erdkunde und Planetologie, Archaeology
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/369aca76-868c-455a-b9e2-1dbcd5082940